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Civilization V is a turn-based 4X strategy game where the aim is to complete one of the many victory conditions; the player is in control of their selected civilization from the early ages of civilization and takes them into the future.

It was developed by Firaxis Games as a PC exclusive which was first released in 2010. This game is the fifth major game in the Civilization series.

There are eighteen civilizations to select from in the game, each of them have unique abilities; the abilities have a passive effect in the game and some provide a more advantageous bonus for specific tile types. Games are played on a variety of maps, the maps are designed for a specific amount of players however players can create custom games to fit their map and player count requirements.

The game is played on hexagon shaped tiles which are assigned to a terrain such as “desert” or “jungle” which have unique bonuses. In addition to this there are Natural Wonders that randomly spawn around each map, these provide a happiness bonus to the civilization that discovers it and also gives additional bonuses to the city that includes it within their territory.

Happiness, gold and culture are important for cities to grow, they are all cultivated by buildings constructed in the city; culture is used to unlock social policies which provide the player with bonuses to suit their playstyle. There are 10 Social Policy trees to be unlocked and completing a full tree provides an extra bonus. Gold is gained and lost each turn depending on the buildings in the empire and the size of the army.

Combat is done on the hex tiles and battles are won or lost according to pre-determined statistics based on unit skills and the terrain. Units can be trained from cities and appear after a specific number of turns, they can also be upgraded once the unit becomes obsolete.

There are several victory conditions that must be reached in order to win the game: Domination, Science, Cultural, Diplomatic and Time. If a victory has not been attained by turn 500 then the player with the highest score wins a Time victory. To obtain a Domination victory, a player must conquer the capital city of every other player in the game. Enemy cities can be kept under the control of the player or they can be burned down and destroyed if the player wishes.

In addition to the AI or player controlled civilizations, there are also neutral City States which can be befriended; becoming the ally of a city state will provide the player with some bonuses, however a City State can also be taken over by military force to increase the size of an empire.

It can be played single player or can be played online with other players; it can be played co-op where players can join teams together against other players or the AI and can also be played PvP.

Various changes were made to the series from the previous game in the series, Civilization IV. This game is much more streamlined and the concepts are easier to understand in comparison to the previous game which focused more on micromanagement. Civilization V is more focused towards combat and the diplomatic system of this game has been improved greatly since the previous game.

City States are new to the series in Civilization V and add a new element of strategy to the game as there are also options to enter diplomatic relationships with them. The hexagon grid is also new to the series and have changed combat dramatically as a result, there are now more directions for units to travel and attack in.

Wikis: Gonna start up a Battlefield 3 wiki in addition to fleshing out the Bad Company 2 wiki and Dragon Age wiki (going to work on the gameplay tips guide -- can't wait!). Once Lydia isn't so busy with reviews she'll get back to Guild Wars 2 -- why not help out in the meantime? :) Leo is settled on the Valkyria Chronicles series wiki, especially with VC3 coming.

On a sidenote, our hardware side is in a bit of a state at the moment. If you didn't catch the notices on Twitter/FB, you should check out our affiliate Overclocker's Club for the next while until things get back to normal:

If you're curious on the backstory, basically it's just the usual ebb and flow -- some folks are leaving because of school and whatnot, so our new guy Chris Ledenican is taking on pretty much all of the new hardware reviews, with no time for news. We hope to get sorted sooner than later.

Also, a great PC developer by the name of Arcen (AI War, Tidalis) is in financial trouble -- I strongly recommend you pick up their game or games, spread the word, etc. They're very community oriented and it'd be a shame to see them go under.